About Us

Board of Directors

Pallavi Jha Chairperson & Managing DirectorWalchand PeopleFirst Ltd.

Pallavi Jha is the Chairperson & Managing Director of Walchand PeopleFirst Ltd a publicly listed company. Walchand PeopleFirst has international partnerships with some of the world's leading firms and brands such as Dale Carnegie, USA (training), and PerformanSe, France (Assessments).

Pallavi has diversified exposure to various management practices in areas such as training and development, HR, consulting and business restructuring, covering a wide range of industries from media, entertainment, technology to the financial services sector and the engineering industry.

She has singularly led the India operations into the fastest growing region for Dale Carnegie Training, winning several global awards for service and sales excellence.

She has been a vocal spokesperson for industry associations, and has chaired and moderated panel discussions involving India's leading business leaders. She has played a pioneering role in setting up India's first Finishing School focused on soft -skills training, the missing ingredient in the talent development and employability challenge confronting Indian industry.

She has been a keynote speaker and a panel member in various forums on business, HR, training and leadership. She is an active member of the Confederation of Indian Industry and has held offices of the Chairperson for Maharashtra Council, CII and the Skills Development Committee for CII, Western Region. She is also an active member of the National Council on Skills Development, CII and its National Sub-committee on School Education. Additionally, she has been part of women's groups, which has encouraged first generation women entrepreneurs into taking business initiatives.

As a member of Rotary Club of India, Pallavi pursues her efforts in social projects. She has also received recognition as a Paul Harris Fellow.

Earlier, was Executive Director of India's leading construction company, HCC, an erstwhile Walchand Group company before starting off her own ventures. She also worked briefly in market research at Feedback Ventures and Procter & Gamble.

Pallavi is an MBA from Syracuse University, New York and a graduate in humanities from St Xavier's College, Mumbai.

Mr. Sanjay Jha
Executive Director
Dale Carnegie Training India

Sanjay Jha is the Executive Director of the world-famous Dale Carnegie Training operations in India, which has a global experience of having worked with over 400 of the Top Fortune 500 companies. In India, Dale Carnegie has worked with over 1500 corporate firms, multinational companies, public sector, government and NGOs and trained more than 180,000 Dale Carnegie graduates in the last ten years. His area of professional interest and management science specialization includes leadership development, creating the vision and mission map and enhancing employee engagement. Sanjay is an Executive Coach and Mentor who has advised top management, including CEO’s as well as senior political leaders.

Sanjay has often received an overwhelming feedback and recognition for his high-quality training and leadership talk. He is one of the senior leaders in the global Dale Carnegie Training network, and has addressed global audiences in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Singapore, Bermuda, Taiwan, Mexico and Toronto. Jha has addressed managers and leaders at ICICI Pru, IBM, Axis Bank, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Oracle, British Gas, Brookings, Dainik Bhaskar, Crompton Greaves, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Bajaj Electricals, SHRM, Standard Chartered, Tata Motors, CII, IMC, Venture Capital Association, NHRD, Apple, Bharat Petroleum, Citibank, Mahindra & Mahindra etc. He has conducted several corporate programs focused on executive development, advised companies on corporate image management, done executive coaching and consulted with companies. He has also addressed business schools, industry conferences and knowledge symposiums, and has also been engaged frequently as a strategic consultant/ advisor on training to a leading political party.

He has made several contributions to mainline news and business dailies and magazines such as Business Standard, Indian Express, Financial Express, Hindustan Times, Mid-Day, Tehelka and Rediff. com, and appears regularly to air his views on print and electronic media.

He has founded one of the world’s leading internet portals called CricketNext.Com which was ranked once amongst Alexa Top 1000 sites globally, and is now part of the Network 18 media Group. He was also its Managing Editor and was instrumental in highlighting the financial corruption and wrongdoings in IPL and BCCI management.

Prior to starting Dale Carnegie , Sanjay was instrumental in setting up the private sector mutual fund industry in India , having worked as a Senior Vice President with ITC Threadneedle Asset Management ( part of BAT plc, UK) and as a Vice President , Alliance Capital ( New York, USA). His career in banking included stints with both Bank of America and ANZ Grindlays Bank where he worked in NRI marketing and operation services, product-technology training, retail banking and branch management . He started his career in sales with Bharat Petroleum.

Jha completed his MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and his Master’s in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, University of Pune. He graduated with distinction in Economics from Fergusson College, Pune.

Sanjay has also written a cricket anthology titled 11—Triumphs, Trials and Turbulence in Indian cricket, two cricket quiz books and published his first collection of poems. Jha has recently authored a book called The Superstar Syndrome (The Making Of A Champion) , co-authored with Dr. Myra White, who is a Professor at the Harvard Medical School. This book was launched in August 2013.

Mr. M. N. Bhagwat - Director

Mr. Bhagwat did his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical & Electricals engineering from the University of Pune, M.S. (Mechanical Engineering) from University of IIinois, USA and Diploma in Business Management from the prestigious Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

He worked in various senior positions both in India and abroad, which includes Blue Star, Yokogawa Blue Star, Total Mechanical Systems Inc., USA, Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Chicago, USA and Managing Director of Tata Honeywell Limited. He is currently advisor to Tata Sons Limited and heading the Corporate Assurance Group, which administers the Tata Brand equity and the Tata Code of Conduct. He is Chairman of the Audit Committee of Walchand PeopleFirst Ltd, formerly, Walchand Capital Ltd.

Dr. Satish C. Jha - Director

Dr. Satish C. Jha has done his M.A. from Patna University and M.Sc. & Ph. D., in Agriculture Economics from the prestigious Stanford University and University of Illinois, USA.

Dr. Jha was a Consultant to the Economic Commission for Asian and Pacific (UN) during 1995-96. Prior to this, he was Director of Research – Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, Bombay during 1963-68 and Director & Chief Economist
– Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines during 1968-1994.

He was on the Board of The Delhi Stock Exchange Association Ltd. He is also active in various industries forums and has delivered number of keynote addresses in various forum of topical interest.

Mr. V.K. Verma - Director

A veteran of human resources function, Mr. V.K. Verma began his career at Tata Motors over 3 decades back as a Technical and Management Trainee and worked on many line assignments in the company’s various Production & Engineering departments. Since then, he has held position of increasing responsibility, culminating with his appointment as the Head Corporate HR in 1996. In this role, he has been responsible for the design and implementation of HR enable change management and Turnaround, which includes restructuring of workforce and amicable VRS of over 550 bargain-able employees.

His contribution in planning and implementation of the growth linked HR strategy including restructuring of commercial functions and strengthening of Product development function was well recognized at Tata Motors. His other notable achievements were Development of the competency Framework, institutionalising Leadership Dev processes including Talent Management & Fast Track systems.

Mr. V.K. Verma holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Bhopal and has Post Graduated in Business Management form X.L.R.I., Jamshedpur. He was a rank holder both at the University level and the B-school. He was a Member of the National Technical Training cell of CII and was the Chairman of the Western Regional Technical Training Group. He continues to be a visiting faculty at several B Schools and TMTC.

Dr. V.N. Gupchup - Director

Dr. V. N. Gupchup is a Civil and Structural Engineer with degrees of Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from the University of Bombay in 1958 and Master of Science & Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering obtained in 1959 & 1963 respectively, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in USA.

He has been active in the field of Technical Education for more than thirty five years and has provided leadership in this field in the State of Maharashtra. He has contributed to various aspects of the development of Technical Education at the National level through his association with the All India Council for Technical education and the University Grants Commission.

He was the Principal of VJTI from January 1983 to June 1992 and May 1995 to January 1997, when he retired after spending nearly three decades in the field of Technical Education.

He was the Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Mumbai from June 1992 to May 1995. He was also the Chairman of the 'National Board of Accreditation' set up by the All India Council for Technical Education in India from July 2000 till June 2003.

He has presented invited lectures at several Universities in the USA including Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT), Northwestern University, Drexel University, Kansas State University, Texas State University, And Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville.

He continues to be an active member on various academic bodies of the University of Mumbai, AICTE and UGC. He is also a Director on several company boards and consults on a wide range of academic and engineering areas.

Mr. Rajeev Dubey - Director

Rajeev Dubey studied Economics at St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, and at the Delhi School of Economics. He went on to do his MBA from the Yale School of Management, USA as a J N Tata scholar, and was selected as a Distinguished Alumnus of the School. He has recently acquired the GPHR (Global Professional in Human Resources) certification from the Society of HR Management USA

As a Member of the Group Management Board of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Mr. Dubey's key focus areas are HR / IR initiatives for the Mahindra Group, the After Market Sector, Corporate Communications and Corporate Infrastructure & Services.

He is the Chairman of Mahindra Insurance Brokers and Mahindra First Choice Services Ltd. In addition he is on the Boards of several Group companies including Mahindra Ugine Steel, Mahindra Intertrade, Mahindra First Choice and Mahindra Retail. He is Chairman of the CSR Council and Sustainability Council of the Group, and a Member of the Corporate Governance Cell.

Mr. Rajeev Dubey joined Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. in January 2004 after a career spanning 29 years in the Tata Group, of which 7 years were as Managing Director and CEO, first of Tata Metaliks and then of Rallis India.

He is on the Governing Board and Advisory Council of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management and a member of the Advisory Council of Population First, Mumbai Chapter.